Economic circumstances and family outcomes: A review of the 1990s

This review documents the economic context within which American families l ived in the 1990s. Despite nearly full employment and growing income and we alth for many Americans, problem areas included persistent racial gaps in e conomic well-being, growing inequality, and declining wages for young men. Women showed stronger income growth than men in the decade, and 2-earner ho useholds became increasingly associated with advantage. We review the conse quences of these trends and of economic well-being generally on 4 dimension s of family outcomes:family formation, divorce, marital quality, and child well-being. Despite hypotheses suggesting that women's earnings might have different effects on family outcomes than men's earnings, generally the rev iew supports the expectation that both men's and women's economic advantage is associated with more marriage, less divorce, more marital happiness, an d greater child well-being. Important issues regarding measurement, recipro cal relations between family structure and economic well-being.